Doomsday set for Garry oak

Published 6:00 pm Saturday, February 21, 2004

Sunday, March 7, will mark the end of the line for the 150-year-old Garry oak at the Oak Harbor Post Office. That’s the day the landmark tree is set to get a permanent chain saw trim.

But the community will still have something to remember it by for many years to come. About 20 feet of the 80-foot tree will be left standing. For $20,000, the city hired South Whidbey artist Steve Backus to turn the truck into a carving on the site. The rest of the wood is being donated to local group Harbor Pride, which plans to turn oak panels into carved relief murals of historic images.

City Parks Manager Hank Nydam said the tree cutting will begin in the early morning and may take an entire day. “It will take a little bit longer than normal,” he said, “because we are being a little bit more careful.”

Nydam said city officials chose to do the cutting on a Sunday so that there are no cars in the post office parking lot and minimal disruption of traffic on Barrington Drive.

Still, the cutting will likely draw some attention from the community. Several folks, including a former city parks director, have been critical of the decision to lop the oak. City council members chose to cut the tree down after a consulting arborist concluded that it was dying from decay and may pose a safety concern.

After the decision was made, the council set up a committee to decide what to do with the wood. They recommended the carvings and the council agreed.

“Naturally, I don’t like to see the tree come down, like anyone else,” Nydam said. “But since there’s no choice, I feel we’re doing the best we can with the situation.”

Nydam said the two artists who will be working on the tree and its wood — Backus and Harbor Pride’s chosen artist, B.J Daniells — will be at the scene to direct the cutting. In addition to 20 feet of trunk, he said four or five “dominant runners” or limbs will be left. City crews are borrowing a large boom truck from Krieg Construction so they can carefully remove the branches.

The majority of the wood taken off the tree, Nydam said, will be stored at the public works department until Harbor Pride members decide exactly what to do with it. At some point the city will have the lumber cut into panels, milled and dried for the group. Harbor Pride estimated it will have to raise $31,500 for the project.

In addition to the trunk carving, Nydam said a pocket park will also be landscaped around the tree. But while the city originally planned to plant a new 20-foot tree at the site, Nydam said officials have since learned that Garry oaks of that size don’t transplant well.

Nevertheless, Nydam said the spot will host “something attractive that people will enjoy coming out to see.”